What was supposed to be a gentle splash around in the shallows suddenly turned into a much scarier prospect when holiday-makers came face to face with a shark in New Zealand on Saturday.Papamoa Beach, a popular Bay of Plenty destination, was an idyllic haven for swimmers until a shark came into the shore, swimming around in only a few feet of water.Onlookers initially got out of the sea sharpish, but soon returned to take photographs and videos of the 2.5 metre bronze whaler as it eventually swam away.

In a terrifying situation, the New Zealand beach goers who clocked the shark quickly got out of the water, and probably thought that was the end of the situation, only to then see the 2.5 meter shark move rapidly in their direction.

One kid summed it up pretty well by shouting, ‘look it’s huge’ and had that been us, we would’ve been running pretty quickly, but these cool onlookers simply got their camera phones out to capture the moment forever.